Lawyers to seek bail for man in TV crew shooting

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Defense attorneys said Friday they'll seek the release of a former schoolteacher who was jailed to await sentencing after being found guilty of four charges in a shooting involving the crew of the reality TV show "Repo Games" outside his North Las Vegas home.

Carlos Enrique Barron, 43, had been free on $100,000 bond until a jury found him guilty late Thursday of felony assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon, burglary and misdemeanor discharging a firearm. He faces possible sentences ranging from probation to up to 22 years behind bars.

Clark County District Court Judge James Bixler ordered Barron taken immediately into custody, but indicated that he may set a new bail amount at a hearing Tuesday, defense attorney Richard Tannery said.

Barron's sentencing date wasn't immediately set.

If Bixler grants Barron probation at sentencing, he may not appeal the conviction, Tannery said.

"Sometimes you don't want to get what you ask for — a new trial," he said.

Barron, who testified in his defense on Thursday, was acquitted of the three most serious offenses stemming from the April 2011 shooting — two counts of attempted murder and one felony discharging a firearm into a vehicle charge.

"We're glad we were able to beat the most serious charges," defense attorney Bennair Bateman said Friday. "But we have mixed emotions that he was found guilty of the other charges."

Prosecutor Michael Radovcic said he believed the verdict, reached by a jury of seven women and five men who heard about four days of testimony, "shows the people in Clark County care when someone in the community acts belligerently with a firearm."

Barron, who lost his job as a high school special education teacher and once served as a homeowner association president, told jurors he acted in self-defense when he fired his handgun three times during a confrontation with two "Repo Games" crew members.

No one was hurt.

Barron said the men emerged from a van that he complained blocked his driveway during filming down the street from his house on Vigilante Court.

Police found two bullet casings near Barron's garage door and one in the middle of the street, which prosecutors said suggested that Barron followed the fleeing film crew and fired a needless shot.

Barron had a registered Glock 9mm handgun, but the gun used that night was never found.